Poole Borough Archive Project Event

The Dorset History Centre held a reception on 29th of March to celebrate the completion of the Poole Borough Project. This significant project catalogued over 1600 boxes of parchment and paper spanning 800 years. A tremendous effort which included the creation of a digital catalogue, conservation of documents where needed, and the repackaging of all the boxes for storage in the History Centre’s climate controlled strong rooms. This has ensured the preservation and accessibility of Poole Borough’s archival history.

I was very privileged to join these celebrations representing the Dorset Archives Trust (DAT). DAT are proud to be one of the organisations along with The National Archives, which provided funds for this project. Other attendees included the Mayor of Poole, Councilors from Poole Borough, Poole historians, volunteers from the project and staff from the History Centre.

Poole’s original Coat of Arms ca. 1563 based on a seal from the late 1300’s

The event showcased a selection of items from the archive, including the founding Longespee Charter dating from 1248 down the timeline to a letter to the Mayor in the early 1960s. Also on display was the full archive catalogue which can now accessed over the Internet. The project archivist Katherine Kinrade gave a fascinating presentation on the work of the project and anecdotes on the 15,000 items held in the archive. A delightful afternoon enjoyed by all, the only sad part was saying goodbye to Katherine who has done such a sterling job as Project Archivist. We wish her all the best for the future!